Focus groups were conducted with 15- to 16-year olds in Northern Ireland looking at reasons for alcohol consumption and reflections on specific attitudes towards alcohol and behaviours resulting from alcohol use. Participants reported greater concern with "being caught" drinking by parents than with any negative short- or long-term health impact…

Aims: To investigate whether "binge-drinking" is new by comparing the behaviour and attitudes of two generations at the same age and of one generation at different ages. Methods: Fifty-six student/parent pairs completed questionnaires partially based on the Adolescent version of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (Brown, S.A., Christiansen,…

In this commentary, we critically review the contribution of the sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982) to understanding recovery from problem drug use. Previous research has indicated that drug users have a "spoiled identity" and must restore a "normal" or "unspoiled" identity in order to recover. This argument has been linked to Goffman's…

The provision of accurate, in-depth data on substance abuse trends and service needs has become increasingly important in light of the growing wave of substance abuse in South Africa and particularly in the Western Cape Province. This article describes the design and implementation of an electronic substance abuse surveillance system (SASS)…

Alcohol screening and intervention in community health settings places a great time demand on practitioners. Thus, implementation of practitioner-delivered intervention is challenging. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of incorporating a brief alcohol intervention into daily practices of a community health care centre by…

The alcohol policy debate demands greater critical reflection on the complex and disaggregated nature of the alcohol industries in contrast to their frequent characterization as a coherent, monolithic and singular entity with a common goal. Such reflection is necessary in order to rethink the linked assumption that drinkers are vulnerable victims…

Aims: Substance use and misuse amongst young people attending colleges of further education (FE) has received little attention in the drug use literature in the UK. This article aims to explore the patterns of drug use amongst young people attending colleges of further education in Northern Ireland. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey…

This article reviews and reflects on the Diploma in Addiction Studies: a 1-year, full-time programme taught at the School of Social Work and Social Policy in Trinity College Dublin since the academic year 1983/1984, which has recently had its external funding withdrawn. The programme was aimed at multidisciplinary classes, including students from…

This research describes and analyses recent policy developments in Ireland in relation to the practice of selling psychoactive substances which, while not themselves illegal, mimic the effects of commonly used illegal drugs. These so-called "legal highs" had been sold in Ireland through an increasing number of "head shops" which in late-2009 and…

This article reviews the emergence and expansion of addiction counselling as a specialist form of professional practice with problem drinkers and drug users in Ireland, over the past 30 years. It sees addiction counselling as having its roots in a widely shared disenchantment with the "medical model" of addiction treatment, and identifies the main…

This article reports on a study which aimed to explore the extent to which drug policy making in Ireland might be deemed to be a rational, evidence-based process. The research was completed during the first half of 2008, as the National Drug Strategy 2001-2008--which explicitly claimed to have research as one of its main "pillars"--was coming to…

Internationally, service user involvement has become a common feature of public policy and more specifically public health policy in the recent decades. In a general context, the involvement of service users in health services has been well documented; however, less evidence is available within the area of drug treatment service provision. This…

The social norms approach to health promotion has become remarkably popular in the last 20 years, particularly in the American college system. It is an alternative to traditional fear-based approaches of health education, which a growing body of research demonstrates is often ineffective in reducing alcohol and drug misuse. The social norms…

Aim: This study investigates the association between two types of social relations during leisure time (to parents and peers) and the frequency of alcohol use among Swedish adolescents, taking possible interaction effects into account. Methods: The data were collected during the 1995-2005 time period by using a questionnaire handed out in the…

Prevalence surveys in Ireland indicate an increased trend of youth drug use with rural areas reporting comparable drug availability and prevalence of use in urban settings (Currie, C., Nic Gabhainn, S., Godeau, E., Roberts, C., Smith, R., & Currie, D. (Eds.). (2008). "Inequalities in young people's health: HBSC international report from the…